The terms of the deal, which comes on the heels of one announced last week to purchase data-quality technology vendor Zoomix, were not disclosed.

Microsoft will retain most of the 93 DATAllegro employees, who will continue to work out of their existing office in California.

DATAllegro provides data-warehouse appliances, which combine data-storage functions with business-analytics software. According to the company, its appliances allow companies to rapidly query large volumes of data and have the flexibility and scalability enterprises need, but at a cost-effective price.

Microsoft plans to use DATAllegro's technology to extend the capabilities of SQL Server for enterprise customers, making it easier and more cost-effective for them to manage and mine data. The company is expected to reveal more details about what it plans to do with DATAllegro's technology in October at its Business Intelligence Conference, according to IDC analyst Dan Vesset.

Microsoft may run into some challenges when integrating DATAllegro's technology with SQL Server. One technical challenge will be to replace the open-source Ingres database that the acquired company's appliance is based on, wrote Forrester analyst James Kobielus in a research note released Thursday.

Another will be to convince customers to use SQL Server in favour of Ingres, he wrote. "Clearly, that migration to SQL Server may alienate a substantial portion of DATAllegro’s existing customer base," Kobielus wrote, adding that it also will likely raise the price of Microsoft's version of DATAllegro's appliance.

However, on the plus side, Microsoft will provide what "DATAllegro has most critically lacked - global sales, marketing and support - "in spades," he wrote.

Managing and getting relative business intelligence from data has always been a problem for business customers, particularly large enterprises, and customers long have used data warehouses to store and manage large quantities of data.

The data-warehouse appliance market, which combines storage and management with analytics, has been growing over the past several years because it provides an all-in-one package, Kobielus wrote.

"Over the past several years, the DW [data warehouse] appliance - a preconfigured, pre-optimised bundle of hardware and software components - has become the predominant go-to-market approach among both established and start-up DW solution providers," he wrote.

Microsoft's purchase of DATAllegro signals that there will be more consolidation in the data-warehouse space, with large enterprise data-warehouse vendors snapping up smaller, niche players, both Kobielus and IDC's Vesset said in separate research notes.

According to Kobielus, Forrester expects that incumbent enterprise data-warehouse vendors, such as Oracle, SAP and Hewlett-Packard, will follow Microsoft in the coming year to make strategic acquisitions in the market. Other pure-play companies still up for grabs in this space include Greenplum and Dataupia, he wrote.

Microsoft expects the deal to buy DATAllegro to close at the end of this month or the beginning of the next.